The first time came after Florida reliever Harvey Garcia threw behind Luis Castillo and the second baseman walked toward the mound with his bat in his hand. One pitch earlier, Garcia had nearly hit Castillo, who already had three hits in the game,in the leg with a pitch.

While both dugouts and bullpens cleared, order was quickly restored although Mets pitching coach Rick Peterson was incensed and had a lot to say to Marlins catcher Miguel Olivo.

Then, after Castillo walked and the Marlins were in the midst of making a pitching change, Olivo, who had words two pitches earlier for Jose Reyes, charged from the mound to get at the Mets shortstop who was the runner at third.

Olivo never quite got to Reyes thanks to Sandy Alomar, the Mets 63-year-old third-base coach. But both benches emptied again and the teams milled around near third base and in front of the Marlins dugout.

Mike DiFelice, the Mets third-string catcher, and pitcher Oliver Perez, who was beaten up pretty badly by the Marlins bats here on Friday night, were particularly agitated and had to be held back from doing any arm.

Eventually, the teams were instructed to return to their respective dugouts and bullpens by the umpiring crew. Reyes, who took a walk out into short left field to cool off, was serenaded by chants of "Jo-se, Jo-se,'' while Olivo was ejected from the game.